Availability

I recently volunteered to step up to be our field's Personnel Director. Jeff is thrilled. We have been trying to recruit someone for this position for years but no one has come. I didn't want to take on this major responsibility because I know I am not qualified and I totally lack the capabilities needed. So I take on this task with fear and trembling. I have a lot of visions and ideas of what may need to happen, but I am not strong on implementing my ideas. It is clear to me that there are many, many more competent people than myself. I only have a high school degree and 1 year of college. I do not have any particular training. I'm not the most gifted or talented person. There are many publishers who are much more creative and skillful than I am. Many that can type faster, are more hospitable, less timid, speak Tagalog better, have more energy, even look better. But I have one thing that no one else has for the job I am doing. I am available. This job should be done by someone more skillful than myself-- but no one is here to do it. So I am the best one for the job. I do it out of my weakness by God's strength and wisdom.

Mary Ann

Emergency phone call

We got a phone call on our VOIP phone at 3am. Most people who have that phone number know to wait until we are up and awake before calling so I figured it was urgent. Jeff was already up so he answered to a tearful Micah. She asked for me. By that time I was up and heading toward the phone. "I had an accident" she with a tone of urgency. I first thought it was a car accident. That is not what you want to hear when you are 7,000 miles away. No, it was an accident on the ice rink. Her toe pick on her skate jammed into the ice while she was coming down from doing a double flip. Since the left skate didn't budge, she came crashing down on her left ankle. She couldn't get up so she was put on a chair and pushed off the rink. The rink manager asked if they should call 911 to get help and she said yes. They arrived shortly. They removed her skate but there was no way to tell if it was broken or badly sprained so they suggested that she go to the hospital and get it x-rayed. 

This is where I came in. Micah didn't know what hospital to go to. I didn't either. So she handed the phone to the paramedics and we chat. He asked me where to take her and I told him she is a veteran so could they bring her to the VA Hospital. He told me they don't have emergency care so he suggested a hospital close to where they were and it was the one where Micah was born. So we agreed to take her there. He asked me where I was at that moment and he was quite surprised to learn I was in Manila. I talked to Micah a little more and realized that she would not have any way to contact anyone to bring her home. She had no money on her so she couldn't take a taxi home.

For the next hour, I had to locate a ride for her. Meanwhile, she got into a discussion with the ambulance guys and they talked about Iraq. She had a backpack from there and I had already mentioned she was a vet. The guy that I had talked to told her he had a brother-in-law that didn't make it home. Micah realized how grateful she was to have legs to skate on, even though it was possibly broken, she would mend. My parents were not home so I called my sister. She wasn't home either but I learned she was at her daughter's piano recital. I finally got ahold of my cousin Darlene who was more than willing to give up her afternoon rest to go get Micah from the hospital. I had to relay phone messages between Darlene and Micah until they found each other. She and a friend named Diane helped bring Micah and her car (which was still at the ice rink) home.

It was difficult to not be able to help much more than make a few phone calls and pray. The VOIP phone has a Roseville phone number so anyone in the Twin Cities can call us at no charge. We can call anywhere in the US, Canada and UK for no charge above our monthly phone bill. It is so cool. But we are very grateful for friends and family that can help out when needed. The next two days were hard for Micah because there was no one to help her out. My mom was going into the hospital for knee surgery and my sisters had to be available to help her and my dad.